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4.8 seconds, Swamis

Wednesday, May 24, 2023

5/24

It's been drizzly, rainy the last few nights.

A thick fog lay on the mountain this morning, Lovely, really. 

The dew was very heavy. Sort of reminded me of Brigadoon. 

The mystical place in Scotland that only became visible once every hundred years.

My puya alpestris got its first couple flowers last night, the hue as beautiful as I had imagined. 

Soon it will be covered in the turquoise buds. 

Blue is the rarest color in flowers. 

There are scientific reasons why.

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The birds look positively pissy in their wet nest.

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I am so glad that I am not on Facebook or the Friends of Fallbrook groups. 

A friend of mine was telling me that a restaurant I frequent has been getting dragged through the mud online, terrible food and the boss supposedly mean to her employees.

I go to this place a lot and only see a wonderful boss who serves great food. Funny.

I guess it just takes one disgruntled employee.

But I also heard that a certain sushi bar that had recently sold was sold because they felt hounded by social media, specifically one of the FoF sites. The woman didn't need the negativity at this point in her life and said "I quit." I don't blame her. Anonymous people and keyboard warriors are vicious. My stress level has been greatly reduced since I banned anonymous comments.

Sad that magnified social media platforms can be so destructive to good merchants. I have been attacked online and it mostly rolls off me but have nine pages of death threats saved from my wife's incident and that made me very angry.

So I think it is better for me to not be on Facebook or Friends of Fallbrook.

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I have an antique show in Palos Verdes next week at the Episcopal Church, St. Francis. Haven't done it in decades. Now in their 52nd year. If you are around, please come by and say hello. 

3 comments:

Julie Hardesty said...

Beautiful pictures today, like always. I love your puya alpestris! The flower is stunning.

P.S. I agree, FB and FoF are overrated and basically unhealthy forms of entertainment. Interesting it's called social media because it's actually anti-social in my opinion. Best thing I ever did was to delete my FB account. I did it and never looked back.

Blue Heron said...

Working in the newspaper business for as many years as I did, I can tell you there is nothing I dislike more than social media.
Time and time again, I’ve seen hatred, incorrect information, and bullying having free rein of distribution in the community.
In my opinion, people that are organizers of these sites love creating drama and negativity in our community. “Friends” of a community? Not in the least. Far from it.
When it comes to restaurant bashing, it usually comes from a competitor or employees of a competitor under the guise of “anonymous.” I have witnessed that many times.
“Anonymous“ commenters need to be aware that they leave an IP trail address. Yes. We can easily find out who you are. Anyone can.
Social media doesn’t give anyone the right to commit libel, that is publishing an untruth about someone else, thereby damaging their reputation. If you say it’s your First Amendment right, you are mistaken. The First Amendment doesn’t allow you to make libelous statements.
By the administrators of such a social media site allowing this to happen, it shows they don’t understand the law and that by supporting drama, untruths, hate and bullying, it only has a negative impact on the community.
“Friends?” No.
Foes, yes.
Community members need to unplug from the hate before it consumes them too.

Debbie Ramsey

Blue Heron said...

I will say that I personally didn't read the comments and don't know when they were posted but heard from two separate individuals about the bashing. It does suck. I am on NextDoor and a lot of people are now trying to turn that into a political war zone. I concentrate on birds and flowers.